


MMO AU

by Arktosphonos



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F, Milk and Cereal, Modern AU, eventual pyrruby
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-26
Updated: 2017-10-26
Packaged: 2019-01-23 11:15:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12506108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arktosphonos/pseuds/Arktosphonos
Summary: Modern AU where Ruby and Jaune are partners in an MMO. After several long months of another person tagging along on quests, Ruby asks Jaune who this person is. Ruby is then introduced to Pyrrha, a cute girl from Greece, and is instantly smitten with the redhead.





	MMO AU

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Title DEFINITELY subject to change. I’ve been wanting to write this for a while now, but I’m the worst and kept putting it off. Now that Pyrrha’s fucking dead might as well indulge in my ship tbh.

“Okay, so how do I pull out my weapon again?” Jaune asked the same question for the fifth time in a half hour. Annoyance and slight panic colored the teen’s voice. “I want to take a screenshot and clicking only highlights things.”

Ruby had seen the newbie when she logged on for the day, and decided to take the boy under her proverbial wing and help him get through the first few basic levels. It was slow going, as it seemed Jaune hadn’t the slightest clue how to play an MMO.

He was sweet though, more so than a lot of the players that surrounded them and that she had been forced to party with to get through a dungeon or two. And that kind, oblivious demeanor was what drew Ruby into helping him.

She didn’t want him to have a bad experience playing, not while you had to pay-to-play, and she had once had a higher level player take pity on her and helped her learn the controls of the massive online game. Sometimes all it took was a kind person in a game to make or break your enjoyment of it.

While the newbie wasn’t the quickest learner of the controls, his enthusiasm more than made up for it. After a brief introduction in the chat, the two started a party and an in-game call as Ruby tried to teach him everything she knew that would help Jaune get through the single digit levels. So far they got along swimmingly, and the teachings had his character leap up to level six in a short matter of time.

“It comes out automatically when you attack a creature, but you can change between stances with the Z key.” Ruby paused for a moment, watching the character on screen switch into a fighting stance before disengaging and going back into a neutral one. “See? Simple. You can always adjust your controls to fit you better though.”

“Thanks for helping me with all this,” Jaune thanked her again. Between a constant barrage of questions, he poured in tons of thanks for all of Ruby’s help with getting started. “I didn’t expect anyone but my friend to come help me learn how to play this game.”

She could hear a soft laugh come through the headset, and Ruby felt her face flush in embarrassment as the boy doused her in more praise. “It’s no big deal. We were all newbies at one point or another.”

Clicking onto Jaune’s character, she started a trade with him. “I’m going to give you a bit of the currency they use in-game since it takes a while to build up.”

She could hear the sputtered words of protest before the trade was cancelled. “Crescent, I can’t--”

“Ruby,” she immediately corrected. “My name is Ruby, and of course you can! I’m giving it to you. As a gift for letting me help you out.”

A sigh of quiet distress was heard, and she no doubt expected the boy to be mulling over accepting this new trade she started or not.

“If you’d like to pay me back, I can send a friend invite so when you’re a higher level you can come join a party with me on harder dungeons?”

It seemed like a fair trade to her. Jaune would level up his character, learn a bit more about the world and get a better feel for the game overall before being tossed into a mid-level dungeon alongside her. As long as there were at least two people, it should be okay. Sure, three would ensure their triumph, but Ruby would take any help she could get to defeat the dreaded Grimm that ran rampant in the game.

Ruby’s character was DPS class, but she could make a sub account as a healer and aide them in higher dungeons if needed. Besides, it would be more fun if she had someone to play with other than her older sister who rarely got on the game anymore.

“Actually, I have a high-class friend who’s supposed to be coming online soon. If you need some help, they wouldn’t mind lending a hand.” Jaune, who seemed to have perked up after the brief mention of their high leveled friend, had his character jump in place as he spoke.

Ruby smiled at the action, her own character, Crescent Rose, began jumping in place too. The satisfying sound of crunching leaves each time her character landed was incredibly satisfying to hear, and she jumped a few more times to hear it before spinning in tight, rapid circles before going stock still once again.

“Are they the one who got you into the game?” she asked, unable to resist prodding for a bit of information. She had spent the better part of an hour teaching Jaune the basics, so to know he had a friend who was a higher level than she was was a bit surprising.

A soft grunt was given in affirmation. “Yeah, we met about two years ago on a Neopets forum and stayed in touch. We play games together if we both might enjoy it, but a few months ago they started to talk about Remnant.” Ruby had to stifle a snicker at the admittance as he continued. “They’re really a rad person, and after hearing about them talk about the game so much I decided ‘hey, why not try it?’”

“It’s a good game!” Ruby began eagerly wiggling in her chair, legs outstretched and feet kicking slightly as she grinned at the screen where her and Jaune’s characters idled. She was careful in her excitement not to knock off the headset that perched on her head.

“So far I’m enjoying it.” Jaune paused for a moment to laugh softly. “I’m surprised I didn’t get into it earlier. The graphics are absolutely amazing! And I didn’t expect such a large character creation. I thought I was never going to get out of it”

“Yeah, I spent about an hour designing Crescent Rose when I first made her.” Ruby laughed nervously as she leaned back in her chair and thought back on her time in the character creator.

Untrue. She had spent about two hours alone just designing what Crescent Rose’s face would look like. She’d spent an hour alone sculpting her character’s body and creating, in her opinion, the most perfect person in the world of Remnant.

Sitting forward once more, Ruby’s character started wandering off, smiling as Jaune’s quickly used the sprint button to catch up with her as she walked over to a vendor to sell some of her items. She made it habit to trade items whenever she came to a town again. It kept her inventory light since she hoarded everything possible to keep her currency at a high level.

She liked to buy dyes and a lot of them could be pricy.

“Give me a second,” she said as she rang for her personal vendor. She had a few rare items she could sell in the marketplace and easily triple the amount she had given to Jaune. “I’ve just got to sell a few things.”

She heard a soft hum of agreement before shuffling on Jaune’s end. “Oh, my friend messaged me and is coming online soon. Is it okay if they join the party?”

“Of course!” Ruby was quick to answer.

While they weren’t really friends, it was nice of the newbie to ask if she’d like to stay in the party even after another high character was destined to join them.

“Okay, we just need to meet them at the warp point…”

“Would you like me to lead the way?” Ruby asked after listening to Jaune trail off. No doubt staring at the tiny map in the corner of the screen and trying to deduce where the warp point might actually be in the mess of everything.

“Oh man, please?” Hope was evident in Jaune’s voice, and Ruby couldn’t hold back the giggled that escaped.

“Yeah, it can take a while to learn where everything is,” she said as she started sprinting off towards the Southeast. “Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it eventually, Newbie.”

“Thanks a lot,” Jaune replied, voice veritably dripping with sarcasm. He followed along behind Ruby’s character, sometimes mumbling a quick apology to NPCs and other players alike as he bumped into them.

“So what’s this friend of yours like? How long have they been playing?” Ruby asked as she lead him down the winding staircase of the main entrance that lead to the warp platform. If she was going to be partying with them, she would like to know what they were like.

Before Jaune could answer, a high leveled paladin approached the pair, golden armor gleaming as the warp point spun and shimmered behind her. The off blue light only served to make the player seem more intimidating as they just stood there.

A large shield was strapped to the back of the paladin. Resplendent and ornate in its design, far more than she’d seen on other player characters, and it caused a surge of envy to ghost through Ruby’s body before being replaced with curiosity as she clicked on the character and inspected their equipment.

Brilliant red hair spilled over her shoulders and down her back, and even though the character’s face was hidden behind a mask, Ruby could see the hint of green eyes if she zoomed in closer. Even for a human character, the paladin was tall, standing higher than a player should as they practically loomed over Jaune and Ruby both.

For her armor, it was the highest a person could get at level 99, and Ruby felt her stomach lurch a bit as such an intimidating and powerful person stood in front of them. Sometimes higher leveled players could force a PvP battle, especially if a character was idle or away from the keyboard, and Ruby didn’t want to deal with getting her virtual butt kicked if she could help it.

“Jaune, I think we need to go before--”

_:D !!!_

The emoticon popped up above the player’s head as they jumped in front of Ruby and Jaune. Jaune quickly started jumping in place as well, before he and the new player began running in circles. The childish actions had startled her for a moment before Ruby picked up on what was going on.

“Jaune,  _this_ is your friend?” She was awed that such a high leveled person was here, practically babysitting them both.

Crescent Rose wasn’t a new character, Ruby had been playing her for months now, but had only managed to grind up to level 28 before the need for party members hindered her further advancement in the game.

But here was a level  _ninety-nine_  character, running in circles and jumping around like an excited child with a level six character. It was baffling, and Ruby couldn’t help but let out a small incredulous laugh as she watched as the high leveled player join their party.

Akoúo̱ popped up on the screen beneath hers and Jaune’s names. Ruby squinted at the name, mentally going over how it should be pronounced. “So, Ak--Ak….”

“You can call her Pyrrha,” Jaune supplied. “She’d be fine with you using her name, I think.”

_:D Hello! It’s nice to meet you._

“Pyrrha….” Ruby tested the name out, letting it roll around in her mouth before slipping off her tongue. “Well, welcome to the party! I’ve just been helping Jaune learn the basics of the game, and as you can see he’s already leveled up a bit.”

_Thank you for helping Jaune._

Ruby frowned slightly as she read the chat. Wouldn’t it be easier to just join the party call?

“Pyrrha was going to help me out today, but we didn’t get the timezones right,” Jaune laughed. His character now stood still besides Pyrrha’s and Ruby watched as she and Jaune had a small conversation. Jaune, via the chat, and Pyrrha through messages.

In a way, Ruby felt like she was intruding. She wasn’t really friends with them, and it was by sheer chance she decided to help this one newbie.

“Ruby, what do you feel like doing?” Jaune asked, pulling the teen out of her own head for the moment and back to the game. “Since I took up so much of your time, it’s only fair we do something you would like.”

_I can help you out with a dungeon since you helped my friend? While he’s not terrible at games, he can take a bit to train._

“Hey!” Jaune cried out, laughter intermingling with his faux outrage at the teasing comment.

Ruby’s eyes sparkled at the chance to possibility to level up and actually get further into the game.

“Yeah, I’d love that,” she said in a large gust of breath.

_:D Alright, just let me know when you’re ready?_

Ruby shoved aside candy wrappers and put her empty can of soda in the trash beneath her desk as she scooted her chair closer, intent on a full night of gaming.

These weren’t her friends, but they could be, and for once Ruby could enjoy a game meant for a group of people without hating every second of the forced, randomized parties.


End file.
